Outdoor play

Kevin's been gone since Friday morning, but he gets home tomorrow evening (Wednesday!) The girls and I are really ready for him to get back. We haven't gone outside as much as usual (it's a little more of a challenge to get the 2 out by myself in the intense heat), and Grace has been a little stir crazy. But we do have fun times when we go out! Sidewalk chalk, bubbles, talking with neighborhood kids, even finding bugs on the ground are fun activities right now. And I love it that Grace is pretending day and night. The other day we spent a good long time going up and down little hills in our apartment complex, pretending to be Jack and Jill. And chasing each other. And pretending we were "stuck" and getting various ropes to get us "unstuck." The little brain is always working. Here are my cutie pies. If Grace looks like she has something in her mouth, she was pocketing and still chewing on some guava from her dinner! During the day, many retired folks sit around our apartment complex playing mahjong. Grace is too shy right now to approach them during the day, but she thought their table was fair game while they were gone!

Oh, my sweet 3 month old! She's sleeping through the night now. And tonight I got some great chuckles out of her. Pure bliss.

She sucks her thumb to go to sleep.

The grandparents will be pleased to know Grace still loves to water plants. She's actually pretty good at knowing how much water each of the plants on our balcony needs!

I'll wait to give you a tour of our new apartment until I get some painting and decorating done, but you can see our apartment building here. We live on the 2nd floor instead of the 4th now, which I love! (There are no elevators in apartment buildings with 8 floors or less.) Ours is the 2nd apartment up on the right.

bubbles, bubbles

This is pretty much what we look like after only 30 minutes outside at 9:30 am! It's really humid! Good hair days don't really exist anymore, but I'm ok with that. :)

And we don't have a backyard, but that doesn't stop us from using a kiddie pool on the balcony! Grace had a BLAST today playing in her kiddie pool. Hours of fun, I tell you. Should have bought this much sooner.

Hey look, I can even water plants while playing in my pool!

Staying cool.

Hope you are having a happy summer!

100 day photo shoot

Going to a studio and having pictures made in Asia is such a cultural experience. (Can I get an AMEN fellow ex-pat friends?!) The experience is often multiplied when kids are involved. Here, portrait studios offer interesting clothing options for your children. If you want to put your 3 month-old in a blond Shirley Temple wig, then hey, they have one and think it's cute! I believe often the effect they are going for is Victorian-chic but it often comes across as something like Little Bo Peep. It's just funny. But there's something about the distinct Asian-ness of the picture experience that makes me smile. Except that it usually takes hours to get the photos made, what with all the outfit changes and all. My two previous experiences having pictures made with Grace made me never want to do it again. But, of course, now that Trinity is here, I really want to be fair. (This is a middle-child talking!) In this country, a baby's 100th day is a special milestone. Often, if a family cares to and can afford it, they will throw a big party and buy dinner for all their family and close friends. And, they will get the baby's pictures made. When Grace turned 100 days old, it took a full 4 hours but we got some cute pictures out of it. Today, with Trinity, it only took 3 hours (including a little nap time thrown in there) and we had a little less drama. I think it's because I was much more vocal this time about what pictures I wanted and what I didn't want. When Trinity and I arrived, they showed me various outfits I could choose from. I found myself saying things like, "No, I don't want a picture with my baby in a pink wig." "Yes, I think the strawberry outfit is cute." Yes, I brought some of her own clothes I'd like to use." "Can we please use the white bow because I don't think the pink one matches with her red dress?" and so forth. The ladies who helped me were so sweet and wanted us to be happy with the pictures. They were much less pushy than the last time I went to a studio. And, they were very interested in every single baby item I had brought with me from the US. The changing mat..."so specialized." Trinity's white bow: "Wow, so different from ours." Her sundresses: "Wow, we don't have any baby clothes like that here." We entertained them, I believe. When we started taking pictures, Trinity rolled over for the first time! That was fun to see. And when you have 3 ladies banging a tambourine and all trying to make you smile at once, it makes a baby tired. So, they were so kind to let Trinity sleep for a while. (That's one thing that I love here; they let you take as much time as you need because it's a special occasion and you want good photos!) Once Trinity fell asleep, I put her down on a mat on the staging area where the photos are made. Trinity was sleeping so soundly in a cute little strawberry outfit. A mom with a 2 year old boy came into the photo room and didn't see me. All of a sudden she said, "That baby isn't real, right? Is that baby fake?" To which I replied, "No, she's real." She turned around suddenly, saw me and laughed. I didn't mean to embarrass her, but I think she was. All of us had a good laugh about it. It's so rare to see a foreign baby here, and she was sleeping so soundly that I can see why she thought Trinity was a doll. :) I was a little tired of telling them I didn't want certain outfits, so I conceded on one outfit and let them dress her in a red and white checked bikini with a Bo-Peep hat. Oh my! Trinity was tired by that point and I knew we already had some good photos, so why fight it? I don't have to buy those, but hmmm, maybe I will just for funsies! It's days like these that makes me smile about some of the cultural differences we run into. Maybe we were a little egg-like today.

Grace is 3!

Before we left the US, the only time I cried was one day prior to leaving...and it was because of a conversation I was having with my daughter. We had just said goodbye to my grandmother, so I was a little emotional already. And then in the car, Grace starting talking about turning 3 and the great party she was going to have. Then she said, "Mommy, all my kids are going to be at my party, right? Will Carter be there?..." and so on. I knew Grace had no idea how far away we were moving. Well, Grace turned 3 on Saturday, and having our dear American friends over made it such a special day for her! Thank you O-family and B-family for coming! No tears on this day, just lots of celebration. I'm so thankful for Grace's life and these 3 years we've had with her. We had a Dora-themed party, since Dora is (of course) her favorite right now. (BTW, I'm so happy to have these pictures posted that I don't care that they are out of order and I'm not even going to try and fix them!) :) I guess Grace knew this was a special day because she wanted to wear her purple princess dress that she usually only wears while playing. We even let her wear it to KFC to pick up the chicken with her Daddy. Nothing says "Happy Birthday" in Asia like a couple of buckets of KFC.

Yes, this is exactly how she eats a cupcake.

A little party-time balloon toss

LUNCH!

I'm so glad my self-worth does not come from my cake-making skills, or lack thereof. I made a round cake (to stack 2-high) and had planned to put little Dora figurines on top since I have not a clue how to decorate cakes. However, in the midst of icing the cake, the top layer was too heavy, the cake was moist and with the addition of extreme humidity, the cake completely fell apart. I mean couldn't even begin to salvage it. Thankfully we still had Dora cupcakes to eat, and Grace wasn't old enough to care. So, the adults had smashed cake and ice cream while the kids had cupcakes. Grace kind of thought it was amusing and kept saying, "My cake was falling down!" Again, although I was close, no tears, just celebration.

These two pretty ladies are sweet friends.

Here's Miss H doing a great job with pin-the-tail on Swiper!

And my wonderful helper Xiao Yu held Trinity and made her laugh. Trinity has slept through the night the past 2 nights! She's all smiles these days and oh, so snugly.

Grace and Miss L enjoyed a little dress-up during the party. Aren't they cute?

Grace, has it really been a year since you turned 2? (6/13/08)

And it seems like just the other day we were celebrating your 1st birthday! (6/13/07)

Grace, we love you so much! You are a spunky, bright spot in our lives. You make us laugh every day. I'll never forget that moment 3 years ago when I heard you cry for the first time and became a mommy. Life hasn't been the same since.

technical difficulties

I'd love to post some pictures from Grace's party, but it appears that half the city wants to be online at the same time. I've been trying for 2 nights to post pictures but every time it times out. Maybe I'll have success soon, but in the meantime thanks for checking back!

We made it!

Hi blogland. It's hard to believe it's been 9 days since we left America. All-in-all, the journey with our 2 little ones went really well and we appreciate those of you who lifted that up! (Although, in the middle of it, Kevin and I made 2 decisions one should never make on a long journey: 1. We're not having any more children, and 2. We can never travel to America again. Just kidding!) Our only real mishap occurred when Grace's DVD player was accidentally left on after watching just one show, so the battery ran down and one hour into the 13 hour flight it went kaput. So, by the time we were on our last flight, we had played multiple times with every toy we brought, including the floss and make-up in mommy's bag. Trinity slept like a champ and Grace at least slept a few hours on the long flight. Thankfully, we are now all switched over to Asia-time and the girls are going to bed at the same time each night. We hadn't even done that yet in the US! We are in our new apartment and are unpacked for the most part. There is still some decorating to do, but that will come. Kevin has already gotten to travel out once. We have had a real joy about being here. Even though we miss our family and friends already, it's been very, very good to be back. Well, except that we've been told a few times already how much weight we gained in America. I know, people, I know. Had a baby, too. Sigh...it's mostly good to be back. There is a very sweet 3 year old girl who lives downstairs, and we've had her to play a few times. And, there are some American girls in our neighborhood who are great friends already. As I write, they are playing "teapot" in Grace's room. We're looking forward to sharing more with you about our new normal.